CLEVELAND — This is the other side of history, the opposite view. This is what it looks like from 60 feet, six inches away, the view of the men who have now seen 2,996 balls fly over their heads, whiz past their ears, squeeze through an infield hole, hug a line of chalk. There have been 807 of them who have given up hits to Derek Jeter since 1995.

We know the first one was Tim Belcher in Seattle on May 30, 1995, during Jeter’s first cup-of-coffee call-up, a clean single in the Kingdome. We know Jeter has victimized Tim Wakefield the most, a remarkable 32 hits in 118 plate appearances. He has 29 against Roy Halladay and 22 against Pedro Martinez and 15 against Cliff Lee (against whom he has a tidy .417 lifetime average). We know he’s 5-for-12 against Justin Masterson, whom he may or may not face tonight.

And now we know about young Carlos Carrasco, against whom he has collected the last three of those 2,996. No. 2,994 came in the very game in which Jeter hurt his calf, a first-inning knock that snuck through the left side June 13 at Yankee Stadium. Two-nine-nine-five came in the first inning last night, a nubber down the third-base line that Orlando Cabrera couldn’t handle (inviting a cavalcade of jokes about how many of Jeter’s hits lately have looked just like that one).

And 2,996 came an inning later, splintering those jokes, on one of the hardest-hit balls Jeter has struck all year, a booming double to left-center field that left four hits shy of 3K. That got an old-school hand slap out of him when he pulled into second, and had Carrasco shaking his head as he surveyed the damage.

“He’s done that against a lot of pitchers,” Carrasco said, softly, later, when this 9-2 Yankees win was over. “You always have to make a good pitch to him. And when you don’t he makes you pay for it.”

Did Jeter look at all diminished to him?

The 24-year-old chuckled.

“Him?” he said. “No, no. No way.”

Carrasco had found trouble for himself by walking a couple of hitters at the bottom of the Yankees lineup, loading the bases, but it wasn’t unfamiliar territory for him. That game back in June, he’d loaded them up with nobody out three hitters into the game, got out of it. And he should have here, too: Francisco Cervelli rolled a perfect double-play grounder toward Asdrubel Cabrera, but second baseman Cord Phelps threw low on the relay, scoring one run.

Then Jeter followed with the high, hard bottle rocket of a double, scoring two more.

“It’s going to be good for him, facing a lineup like this, learning how to pitch against great hitters,” Indians manager Manny Acta said of Carrasco. “He was aggressive in New York with his fastball, not so much here, didn’t have his command, and he paid for it. Guys like Jeter make you pay.”

In a way 806 others have before him.

Carrasco is one of the American League’s bright young pitching talents, even if he struggled last night. He was a part of the haul that Cleveland imported from Philadelphia two years ago when the Phillies acquired Cliff Lee. His batterymate last night, Lou Marson, was also part of that deal, and the plan has always been that Carrasco would team with Carlos Santana (acquired from the Dodgers for Casey Blake in 2009), and Matt LaPorta (the key ingredient from Milwaukee in the deal for Sabathia in 2008) would help form a rebuilt, contending nucleus.

And that has happened this summer, quicker than anyone could have expected. But even as dynamic as the Indians have been, a first-place team on this side of the Fourth of July, a team like the Yankees still can make them look, at times, like a junior varsity team. Or, in that second inning, a junior high team.

“We’re still learning as a team,” Carrasco said. “And I’m still learning as a pitcher.”

As for Jeter?

“Well, I knew I wanted to face him again,” he said, “and I did, and I struck him out [for the last out of the third]. I’ll face him again. And I’ll remember. I’m sure he will, too.”